Ally Carter
Contemporary YA
The last thing Cammie Morgan remembers is leaving the Gallagher Academy to protect her friends and family. But when Cammie wakes up in an alpine convent and discovers months have passed, her memory is a black hole. The only traces left of Cammie’s summer vacation are the bruises on her body and dirt under her nails. All she wants is to go home. But even the Gallagher Academy now holds more questions than answers as Cammie and her friends face their most difficult challenge yet. With only their training and a few clues to guide them, the girls go in search of answers on the other side of the world. But the Circle is hot on their trail and will stop at nothing to prevent Cammie from remembering what she did last summer.
First off, I have been a bad, bad blogger recently for which I apologize. It's been a very busy (in a good way) week. Rest assured, I am being well berated by myself. Plus, American Idol has started!! I know many have jumped off that wagon in the past few years but I'm a faithful worshipper and if you can ignore the judges you'll see that the talent is as great (if not better) than ever.
So, GG5 out of 6. I have been looking forward to this one for a loooooong time. Thankfully, it didn't disappoint. In fact, it was actually better than it predecessors on a few things. For example, the whole Zach-shows-up-kinda-randomly-kisses-Cammie-says-something-mysterious-and-leaves thing usually bothered me. In this book Zach had known, concrete reasons for being in the places he was for which I was grateful. He was sweet and protective but not in the annoying over-protective way YA guys tend to be. AND, he was AWESOME and SWOON-WORTHY as usual. Still not convinced? 4 words. ZACH. WEARING. ONLY. TOWEL. in a certain drool-inducing scene.
Aside from Zach, Cammie's friends were striking and kicking butt as usual. I don't want to spoil anything for you, but the crew's reaction to her return is not what you're expecting and while I'm sure not everyone will love it, I thought it was necessary and realistic. It just wouldn't make sense otherwise. You'll see what I mean ;) As the story moves on, we get to see Bex and Macey being involved and majorly helping out and just being their FREAKING AMAZING selves the whole time. However, In my opinion there was not enough Liz in this book and I was not happy about that at all.
Another minor problem I had with this series as whole is that there aren't any subplots. They're short books and while they're great, I think I would love them so much more if there were subplots. The reason I think so is because when there are other, smaller things going on you learn so much more about the personalities of the characters involved and the more supposedly "insignificant" details about the world that just cause you to be that much more invested in the story. I mean, what would Harry Potter be without Quidditch? Or the scenes in the beginning with the Dursleys? Or Lupin being a werewolf? All these things help you understand the character's background and the decisions they make later on, and the world of the book in general. I'm interested to hear about Cammie's summers in Nebraska, for instance, or how her dad became a spy.
Now for a tiny scene that made me jump up and down like a maniac (no, not said towel scene though I was pretty darn close then, too). You know a book is good when something in it reminds you of Harry Potter (or at least I do). There was a little moment in there where Cammie is supporting someone who always played the "Dumbledore" role in this series (see if you can guess who!) while they are in a weak situation, insisting on taking him/her to someone who can help him/her medically (like Madam Pomfrey) but he/she keeps asking to see some other seemingly unconnected teacher (Snape). Sound familiar? It was pretty cool. I wonder if Ally Carter did it purposely...
In conclusion, it was a great read and left me looking forward to the last book which doesn't have a name or title yet. Grade: 87%
By the way, I'd like to add a countdown widget to my blog for Heist #3... where do I apply the URL?
-Esty
So, GG5 out of 6. I have been looking forward to this one for a loooooong time. Thankfully, it didn't disappoint. In fact, it was actually better than it predecessors on a few things. For example, the whole Zach-shows-up-kinda-randomly-kisses-Cammie-says-something-mysterious-and-leaves thing usually bothered me. In this book Zach had known, concrete reasons for being in the places he was for which I was grateful. He was sweet and protective but not in the annoying over-protective way YA guys tend to be. AND, he was AWESOME and SWOON-WORTHY as usual. Still not convinced? 4 words. ZACH. WEARING. ONLY. TOWEL. in a certain drool-inducing scene.
Aside from Zach, Cammie's friends were striking and kicking butt as usual. I don't want to spoil anything for you, but the crew's reaction to her return is not what you're expecting and while I'm sure not everyone will love it, I thought it was necessary and realistic. It just wouldn't make sense otherwise. You'll see what I mean ;) As the story moves on, we get to see Bex and Macey being involved and majorly helping out and just being their FREAKING AMAZING selves the whole time. However, In my opinion there was not enough Liz in this book and I was not happy about that at all.
Another minor problem I had with this series as whole is that there aren't any subplots. They're short books and while they're great, I think I would love them so much more if there were subplots. The reason I think so is because when there are other, smaller things going on you learn so much more about the personalities of the characters involved and the more supposedly "insignificant" details about the world that just cause you to be that much more invested in the story. I mean, what would Harry Potter be without Quidditch? Or the scenes in the beginning with the Dursleys? Or Lupin being a werewolf? All these things help you understand the character's background and the decisions they make later on, and the world of the book in general. I'm interested to hear about Cammie's summers in Nebraska, for instance, or how her dad became a spy.
Now for a tiny scene that made me jump up and down like a maniac (no, not said towel scene though I was pretty darn close then, too). You know a book is good when something in it reminds you of Harry Potter (or at least I do). There was a little moment in there where Cammie is supporting someone who always played the "Dumbledore" role in this series (see if you can guess who!) while they are in a weak situation, insisting on taking him/her to someone who can help him/her medically (like Madam Pomfrey) but he/she keeps asking to see some other seemingly unconnected teacher (Snape). Sound familiar? It was pretty cool. I wonder if Ally Carter did it purposely...
In conclusion, it was a great read and left me looking forward to the last book which doesn't have a name or title yet. Grade: 87%
By the way, I'd like to add a countdown widget to my blog for Heist #3... where do I apply the URL?
-Esty
This is probably like my favorite series ever! I love all of Ally Carter's books so much- I actually think her books sort of got me to love reading.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for all the nice comments, Esty! :)
xx
Meredith